HELPING CHILDREN REACH THEIR POTENTIAL
How can we welcome each new baby as a miracle endowed with immense potential? How can we support their spiritual, emotional, physical, and psychological well being? How can we ensure that all children and youth have the opportunity to succed based on their unique individual abilities, and not be limited by preconceptions of who they are based on their culture, class and race?
Pre to Three: We believe that each child is born with enormous potential and that the sooner they can be given healthy environments in which to grow, the better they will be able to progress through the development stages so critical to their later life. We are interested in supporting work that creates environments where children can thrive. The majority of our funding will go to projects that impact children and their families from conception through the first three years.
Projects that may be funded in the Pre to Three category include those that provide pre-natal parent education, improve birth experiences, promote very early childhood development, support sound physical and psychological health, encourage language development and provide excellent pre-school. We are more likely to provide funding for projects that are evidenced based and encourage applicants to be clear about the theoretical and practical underpinnings of their work.
We will focus financial support on projects that strategically improve kindergarten/school readiness. We view this readiness in the broadest sense, including academic/intellectual readiness, physical preparedness, and most importantly, social and emotional well being. We have a strong preference for programs that make a difference on a population level - at a school, school district, neighborhood, or an entire community. For more information please click on the links below:
Culture, Class, and Race: While few people in Santa Barbara would identify themselves as racist, the reality is that there is a clear divide in our community between the experience and expectations of youth that come from low income, Latino backgrounds, and their counterparts at school who are often white and economically better off.
This gap covers most measures of youth success, from academic achievement to involvement with crime. It has persisted for more than a generation in spite of the best efforts of many who have worked to change it. We believe there is a strong consensus that dramatically changing this dynamic is a critical issue for the well being of our entire community. We will support projects that address this in a comprehensive way.
In terms of outcomes we will focus financial support on projects that strategically improve the "Latino achievement gap" in school and address issues related to youth crime. We have strong preference for programs that work to make a difference on a population level - at a school, school district, neighborhood, or an entire community.
Evaluation
We believe that the first and most important step in project evaluation is creating a goal that can be expressed in plain English that makes clear what is to be accomplished. The next step is finding an evaluation tool that best measures that goal.
We strongly encourage applicants to use or develop comprehensive evaluation tools that measure end results. Where possible, evaluation tools that are already in use may be the best form of assessment. For projects related to early childhood development, these may include, but are not limited to one or more of the following:
* The Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-2)
* The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA)
* The Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile (KSEP)
* California English Language Development Test (CELDT)
* Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skill (DIBELS)
We recognize that a "theory of change" or "logic model" may also include a number of interim or process objectives that build toward an ultimate outcome. We appreciate applications that clearly express those interim steps as well as the ultimate goal.
Collaboration
Supporting children and families in a comprehensive and strategic way may well go beyond the abilities of any one non-profit agency and may require the formation of unique collaborative efforts of groups that share a particular goal. We strongly support the formation and continued work of those collaboratives and over time we expect that the majority of our funding will go to those efforts.
We recognize that change can be challenging and take time. We encourage careful planning before engaging in such important work and if appropriate we will provide support for planning efforts. As our resources permit, we are willing to support the kind of sustained, multi-year work, necessary to catalyze change.
